Monday, January 31, 2011

Midflight Movies

Hello, friends! It's been a while, hasn't it? Hope you're all enjoying 2011. As some of you may know, I rang in the New Year in France, and since I saw three movies on the plane back, I thought I'd give a quick review of each, in the order that I saw them.

Inception:The story, roughly, of a group of people who can enter into someone's subconscious to steal their ideas and go in to plant one, I really enjoyed Inception. The cinematography was really interesting, I liked all the actors in it, and the storyline was complicated but never felt confusing. I know it's a little too sci-fi for some people, but I thought it had enough in the way of drama and personality not to make that an issue. Also, who isn't interested in meta-meta-meta-meta stories?

Up:I'm not, in general, a hyperemotional person at the movies. In real life, maybe a little bit, but at the movies, unless it's really late at night and I'm alone and feeling sorry for myself, I can usually keep it together. So, imagine my surprise when I found myself repeatedly choked up at Up, an animated Disney-Pixar film. The story of an elderly man who sets out to live his and his wife's lifelong dream of moving to a faraway land, this movie is an emotional rollercoaster. I was laughing, I was crying, I was constantly up and down and up and down. It was absolutely beautiful, completely heartbreaking at points, and just the best movie I've seen in a long, long time. Possibly the best movie I've seen since Wall-E. Yes, I really like Pixar films.

Killers:A sort-of bizarre, kind of cute romantic comedy, Killers stars Ashton Kutcher as an ex-hitman, and Katherine Heigl as his too-perfect wife. I liked both of them in it, and Tom Selleck as Kutcher's father-in-law was hilarious, but I'm not in love with car chases and violence, and that makes up a fair amount of the film (probably in an attempt to make guys watch it), and I'm also not in love with hyper-contrived love&marriage&baby stories, which makes up the rest of the film (probably in an attempt to make girls watch it).

The moral: If you're stuck on a plane for 8 hours and can't sleep, Killers will do in a pinch, and Inception is good, but really, Up is where it's at.